Receive
"Receive" is the second single from Alanis Morissette's eighth studio album, Havoc And Bright Lights. Following the success of previous single "Guardian", "Receive" quickly climbed up Jessica's Top 40 and went on to become the chart's first #1 of 2013, as well as Alanis's fifth #1 and first since "Crazy" in 2005, breaking Britney Spears' record for longest wait between #1 hits. The beginning of 2013 put an end to a seven-year-old chart curse. Alanis Morissette, one of my top core artists, has remained strong for me even after reaching her peak with 1995's Jagged Little Pill. I said on one of my JT40 Countdown shows that she has been a favorite of mine "since I was playing with Barbies and watching Rugrats". Alanis's first album released during JT40's existence, So-Called Chaos, spawned the record-setting #1 hit "Eight Easy Steps" and three more #1s followed with strong anticipation for new material from her 2005 Jagged Little Pill Acoustic and The Collection albums. However, Alanis's chart-topping glory ended in 2005, almost abruptly. "Wunderkind", her contribution to the soundtrack of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, was denied the #1 spot due to upsets by Fall Out Boy and the Sugababes, one of the biggest chart surprises of 2006. Alanis's next album Flavors Of Entanglement, despite being a strong album, failed to spawn a #1 hit on JT40; this was largely due to split chart runs for the lead single "Underneath", which charted four months ahead of its release due to a low-quality rip from a film festival, as well as the weak single choices in "Not As We" and "In Praise Of The Vulnerable Man" and strong competition preventing the rumored single "Incomplete" from reaching #1. Competition also kept Alanis from #1 with the lead single from the next album Havoc And Bright Lights; the album's lead single "Guardian" had to compete with another highly anticipated comeback, Lita Ford. Although "Guardian" was one of the top 5 hits of 2012 due to its strong longevity, it was denied the #1 spot due to Lita's 19-week domination that lasted from May to September 2012. The success of "Guardian" led me to strongly anticipate the second single from Havoc And Bright Lights, which turned out to be "Receive". Musically reminiscent of the So-Called Chaos era, Rolling Stone described the song's lyrics as "accepting that it's OK to channel your giving nature inward for your own well-being." On October 28, 2012, "Receive" debuted at #37; that same week, Lita Ford's "Devil In My Head" debuted at #12, going on to spend eight of the next nine weeks at #1. The two faced off in a rematch of their chart battle from early in the year when "Receive" reached #2 in December 2012, and with Lita reigning as chart queen up until the end of the year, it looked as if her dominance would once again prevent Alanis from reaching the top, but that did not prove to be the case. "Receive" succeeded Lita at #1 the first week of January 2013 to mark Alanis's fifth JT40 chart-topper and spent a total of three weeks on top. With the seven-year chart curse broken, Alanis broke Britney Spears' record for longest wait between #1 songs. Alanis proved with "Receive" she's not only capable of competing against my stronger favorites, but also that she remains one of my strong favorites.